Excerpts from the Diary of Kate Cook
by cagedlemur
Summary: A human from the age of the sentinels, Kate Cook won her place in a mutant concentration camp by being a to forth-right mutant rights activist. In camp she logs the event in her diary...
1. Chapter 1

**Excerpts from the Diary of Kate Cook**

**Kate Cook, age 17, March 29, 2018**

After six months of nearly futile effort, I have landed my hands on an old, unused diary, and a working pen. I am very thankful and lucky to have this diary to occupy my hands and mind when I am not inert from exhaustion. Indeed, as I look around me, I see sickness and disease, but the death toll around here usually spurs from bored, hunger, and insanity. I will use this diary to keep my proper habits in grammer and writing untouched. Otherwise I may begin to talk as most of the other inhabitants do- with uncouth language and crude slang. My proper speech is all that I have left of the outside world.

Our conditions here are deplorable. Concentration Camp 21 is located in a barren wasteland. Enclosing us all is a 30 ft wall topped with barbed wire. Our guards, the MRD, have no sympathy for us, and treat us as they would animals. I am the exception that proves the rule, possibly. Being human, or non-mutant, qualifies me for slightly better treatment, although not enough to make living in this despicable prison tolerable. Inside the boundary wall is a tall building- the guards' bunkers and detention center- a shack, a table, and roughly 100 prisoners. The shack, for it would be misleading to call it a shelter, is our sleeping quarters. It's cramped, but that's okay, as the temperature can reach below twenty degrees Fahrenheit at night, and our only warmth comes from each other and the filthy jumpsuits on our backs.

I have made a few friends here, those who do not despise me for being non-mutant. They are; a Russian named Piotr, a Scottish man called Banshee, and Piotr's little sister Illyana. Piotr and Banshee were both part of the legendary X-men at one point, and I enjoy listening to their stories.

From the news and rumors from the new prisoners, I fear the X-men may be dead. I know Jubilee has perished, and am sure that Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Beast, and Angel are gone. As far as I know, only Wolverine and Xavier are alive, and they may not stay that way long. That is sorry news, as I was good friends with Shadowcat. I hope she is alive and in hiding. But I doubt it.

**Kate Cook, May 1, 2018**

I guess I never explained why I am the first and only non-mutant locked up by the MRD. I had been helping mutants escape their facilities, when I was apprehended one time. I fought free violently, and I was arrested and locked up. I use to wonder why I wasn't put in jail, but now I think I know. Nobody outside of the MRD and my parents know I am here.

**Kate Cook, May 3, 2018**

I received a letter from home today. Only I, out of my fellow (mutant) prisoners, am allowed letters from the outside, but then, only from home. And still, they take no chances with me, as you can see from the pasted letter below:

Dear Katy,

_ _ _ _ _! _ _ _ _ _. Things are okay _ _, _ _ _ _ _ _ _? It's been a _ since you were _ for _ _! Please write back soon!

Love,

Mom & Dad

It is horrible of the MRD to do black out my parents letter, especially when they only allow 50 words! And they refuse to let me reply!

**Kate Cook, May 5, 2018**

I think I gained the other prisoner's respect yesterday when I stood up to a guard who attacked a mutant unfairly. The guard turned on me and hit me. I still have very painful bruises, but it will be worth it if I am correct when I say the other prisoners now respect me.

**Kate Cook or 'lemur', May 21, 2018**

People in Concentration Camp 21 are calling me Lemur. I gained this nickname one night, when we were all exchanging ghost stories, and I told everyone how 'lemur' meant 'ghost'. I don't know why it stuck, but it did. I guess it makes me feel like one of "them"- they all have codenames (for instance, Piotr's is Colossus), and now I do too.

An embarrassing/awful thing happened yesterday. I was woken up early by the MRD guards. And, still groggy, they took me to see the warden. He questioned me, about my fellow prisoners, how they were, how I was. I started concealing stuff when I realized what he was up to, but I'm afraid he gleaned to much sensitive information. I think he realized from my account that the mutant were unhappy and restless (a lot so), and he may start cracking down on us harder. When he was about to dismiss me, he asked one last question: what do you think of this place. I replied, so help me, that if I had to name the single worst place on Earth that I knew of, I would reply that it was Constipation Camp 21. I didn't mean to say, I really didn't, but it earned me 24 hours in solitary confinement nonetheless. When I was released this morning, I told my friends Piotr, Illyana, Banshee, and a new recruit, Robert DaCosta (aka Sunspot), what had happened. They laughed and told all the other mutants what had happened. I was sooo humiliated. But it gave us all a laugh, and now everyone else is calling it Constipation Camp 21.

**Kate Cook, age 17, May 25, 2018**

Two things happened today. Both things started when some Sentinels deposited two new mutants in our camp. One of the mutants was very nearly dead, it looked like. She had many gaping, partially-healed wounds, and was sick with Typhoid fever. Banshee and I were there, so we went up to see if she was okay. When we reached her, Banshee gasped and cried out. He then went into a rage and attacked the nearby guards. He was restrained, and sentenced to solitary confinement for 2 days. Illyana showed up then, and she and I got some food and water for the girl. I had no medicine or bandages, but I fixed her up as well as I could while she ate. When she had recovered enough to talk, she told me that she was called Syren, and that Banshee was her father. I was shocked, to say the least. Never had Banshee mentioned that he was married, let alone that he had a daughter. Syren also told me that she had been injured by the other mutant they had brought in, called Sabretooth.

Sabretooth was the second thing. Ever since he had been brought in, he had terrorized the other CC21 inhabitants, and had attacked Sunspot before the guards, with the help of the Sentinels could restrain him, and lock him in a high-security cell. This mutant was crazed, and I hope they never let him out of that cell.

Syren is a nice girl, and we are already friends. But I fear she, along with Sunspot (who was injured badly by Sabretooth), may not make it without proper food and medical attention, of which we have access to neither.

**Kate Cook, May 29, 2018**

Today Sabretooth escaped. I do not know how. I only hope they recapture him and lock him up somewhere. Mutants like Sabretooth really do need to be locked up. I wonder how he got out? I'll go ask around.

**Later…**

Apparently he was let out this morning, and the second he was free, he ripped his chains off and threw the guards into the cement wall. He then leaped over the wall and ran away! Crazy! At least that's what one of the prisoners, Pyro, says.


	2. Chapter 2

**More Excerpts from the Diary of Kate Cook**

**Excerpt from Kate Cook's Diary, age 15, June 1, 2016**

This is a war. I oppose my own people in this war, as they are wrong. Wrong to oppress mutants, wrong to mistreat them, and wrong to imprison them without adequate reason. For my country- its core consisting of liberty, justice and equality- delivers these values not. Their refusal to allow mutants rights, is proof America has learned nothing from history. Take the Civil War, fought to give rights to blacks. Blacks at the time were not considered "people", just as mutants are not considered "people" today. The blacks were denied liberty, justice, and freedom, until some intelligent citizens fought for their rights. As the blacks were freed and liberated, I only hope the same will be said for mutants someday.

I am fighting in this war, much to the horror of my parents. I am but a child in people's eyes, however, so my opinion of mutants does not much matter. But I can fight by giving aid to mutants, and by freeing them from the cells they were wrongly imprisoned in. This I am doing. I have failed in my endeavors often, but my role was hardly insignificant. It helped my people, the humans, realize that some of their own are against their actions, and will oppose them. I wonder how they feel about me. That I am a traitor, unenlightened or stupid? Some do, truthfully, agree with me, but they are the minority, and do nothing to help. I am alone in my struggle.

**Kate Cook, age 17, MRD Concentration Camp 21, June 1, 2018**

Today a group of Sentinels arrived for permanent deployment. It is creepy to see the four of them, standing there, watching, unmoving. The others are disconcerted too. Everything else around her is dull and monotonous.

**Kate Cook, June 2, 2018**

I noticed today that there seem to be less and les MRD guards around lately. And the Warden hasn't been seen by anyone in five days! What is going on?

**Kate Cook, June 4, 2018**

More Sentinels arrived today. That makes a total count of 11. I wonder what is happening?

**Kate Cook, June 7, 2018**

This morning, we all woke up to find all of the MRD gone, and still more Sentinels! There hasn't been a whisper of this happening. There is a rumor going around that we may be taken to a different camp.

**Kate Cook, June 8, 2018**

It's seriously freaking me out! All those MRD agents just disappeared! And the Sentinels are always towering over us, watching. I hate these over-sized hunks of metal. I have always hated robots. I fear this "Master Mold" may be more intelligent than I thought, and has captured or destroyed every mutant on the planet! What has happened to Genosha and Magneto? Has he been captured or killed? I always thought of him as a rabble-rouser, but he may be our only hope for escape from within these walls. With the sentinels, we have no news from the outside world!

**Kate Cook, June 10, 2018**

When the MRD controlled Concentration Camp 21, discipline and order were kept with a closed fist, a lash, and the threat of solitary confinement (in which we received no food or water), and physical labor. A common joke among the prisoners then was, 'if they gassed us, they'd call this place Auschwitz.' Also, the food was, and still is, disgusting. We were/are underfed on the most nutrition-less food on the planet. In fact, if you didn't know someone's name, wether inmates or new 'recruits', you called them Oliver.

As bad as the MRD were, they were infinitely more desirable than the sentinels. Human guards were a reassurance that there really was another world out there, and occasionally (when bribed), they delivered news of that outside world. The Sentinels just stand there, and sometimes I worry that if anyone of us _does_ escape, we would only escape into a land of Sentinels.


End file.
